


Something About Eld

by Pennin_Ink



Series: Something About Frieda's [4]
Category: Monsters & Other Childish Things (Roleplaying Game), Mrs. Frieda's Halfway Home for Terrible and Freakish Children, The Drunk and The Ugly
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Campaign, Potentially non-epilogue complient, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 20:55:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3354992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pennin_Ink/pseuds/Pennin_Ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few glimpses at significant moments in Eld and Kageko's life together after the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something About Eld

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zach Mansur](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Zach+Mansur), [Nayt Knapp](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Nayt+Knapp).



Everything changes. And somehow it all stays the same.

The morning sun is pale through the window and she is soft and yielding beneath me, just like she always is. She is silk and steel, dark like the night with teeth to match. I can feel the deadly potential of them as they close delicately around my lower lip, careful and practiced, every tiny hint of pain a sweet reminder of how she cherishes me. By now, I know the shadow slopes of her body better than I know my own, I know her sounds and her movements, I know the taste of her and the need surging in my blood to have her and to be hers. It is all perfect, all just as it has always been.

But today is not the same as yesterday. Today everything is changed. And I treasure every second that I can pretend it hasn’t.

I hear her gasp into my ear as she arches beneath me. I feel the brush of her lips on my skin.

“Happy birthday, master.”

I pull back just enough to look at her, just enough to confirm the reality of her beauty, and I smile before I lean down and kiss her. I don’t correct her, not today. I allow myself to feel the giddy surge of delight from hearing her choose me again, choose to stay, choose to hold, choose to love.

I love her so much.

I am eighteen years old today. I have been eighteen for one hour and seventeen minutes. I know this, because when my eyes and mind can focus on anything but Kageko I find myself checking the clock, cherishing every moment that goes by where she is still solid and warm and real in my arms.

Outside our window the sun is rising higher, the light is growing bright and golden and painting the shadows richer and deeper into the world. Inside our bed, Kageko is sweet and sharp and perfect, holding me with strength that could shatter my bones if she ever once failed to consider the frailty of my body against hers.

Our bodies are hot, our breaths labored, and I no longer know what time has passed since the world deemed me a man. I know Kageko’s voice, soft and strong, is crying out, and I know that her perfect midnight lips are cradling the sounds that make up my name.

I know what it feels like to die. I have felt the finality of that moment when life simply vanishes, like blinking. What Kageko does to me is much sweeter and more excruciating than that, and with the sound of my own name echoing in my ears I do not die. I surrender. Happily and eagerly, I am hers. She is still here and I am hers. Forever.

* * *

Everything changes. Everything that matters stays the same.

My hands are shaking. I’ve tried three times to button the cuffs on this shirt, and all I’ve managed to do is wrinkle the sleeves. I let my hands fall to my sides, useless and clumsy. I don’t care. I walk into the bathroom and watch Kageko stare intently at the mirror, her lethal fingers fussing with the careful braids of her hair. Her elegantly spiralling horn is gleaming, her lips are glossed, and her dress...I find myself forgetting the name of our hotel and the color of the sky in the clinging, damning lines of her dress.

Like this, there is no denying her. There is no hiding that her skin is darker than human pigment allows, a black so deep it seems to draw in the light that touches it. There is no pretending away the curve of her horn, polished and gleaming against the skin of her forehead. There is no concealing that Kageko is not human, that her fingers end in dagger tips, that her teeth are predator’s fangs. She is deadly, and beautiful, and now everyone will see it.

“You’re perfect.” I tell her. I mean it.

She looks up and grins at my reflection. “Are you ready, master?”

I smile. “Almost. We have time.”

She fiddles some more with the intricate design she’s constructed. Then she nods at her reflection and turns to me. Her eyes flash, and I recognize a hunger separate and distinct from the one that gnaws at her stomach every waking moment. I glance in the mirror, and try to see what she sees. Sometimes, I almost can.

“Master. You look very handsome.”

I try not to feel like an ape talking to a goddess as I fiddle some more with my cuffs, finally managing to secure one of the buttons. “They, uh. They’re meeting us at the restaurant at six.”

She stalks toward me, every inch a predatory killer, and when she reaches me she nips at my lower lip, just hard enough to remind me how easily the skin could break. I feel like a god in her arms.

“Then you should finish getting dressed, master.”

I am dizzy and my face is hot with all the blood that hasn’t rushed between my legs. I stare at my wrist, sure I’m meant to be doing something with it, incapable of remembering what.

Kageko delicately taps the loose button of my cuff, careful not to pierce it with her claw. I shake myself, dizzy from the smell of her body so close to me.

It takes a fair bit of work to get the damn button through the damn hole. Once I do Kageko slips my jacket over my arms and settles it on my shoulders, running her claws lightly along the back of my neck in the process, making me shiver. I want to grab her to me. I want to rip that dress off her body and taste her hunger on my own tongue.

But it’s after five and our reservations are for six, and as much as I’d like to sate her myself, Kageko needs to eat like I need to breathe. And Manny’s paying.

People are staring when we step out of the car. From the looks of things, people have been staring long enough that they’ve all gotten the hang of it and are ready to go all night. There are flashes going off and I’m not stupid. It’s not just because the lead bassist from Blood Rhino is standing in front of the door, and it’s not just because he’s holding hands with his long-time boyfriend. It’s because he has wings and his hair is gelled up to show off his horns.

The world has shifted, and Manny is doing his best to keep his footing but I can tell by how tightly he’s holding Caleb’s hand that he needs all the support he can get to stay upright. I can see the tightness around his eyes, at odds with his practiced smile. And maybe I’m a bastard but I’m a little glad that he’s there to take the bulk of the attention, so that when I offer Kageko my hand and pull her out of the car, we only get half the camera flashes instead of all of them.

And hey. No one’s screaming.

They lead us to our table, and I question the decision not to rent out the restaurant for tonight. The point is to be seen, to be part of the world, but I don’t know if I can make it through a meal with all these eyes on Kageko. I spent years averting attention from her, it’s hard to let that go.

But I pull out her chair and the candlelight is dancing over her bare shoulders as she sits down. And people can look at her and see a monster if they want to, it won’t make her any less beautiful, so I square my shoulders and let them stare.

Manny and Caleb put on a good show of being comfortable, but I can see the white of Manny’s knuckles every time he reaches out to take Caleb’s hand, and I can see the way Caleb always keeps his hand close enough to hold. Kageko is steadily working her way through all the steaks Manny’s bottomless wallet can bring her, but there’s a tension to her shoulders I want to ease. And me? I can barely keep my salad down, and I don’t remember what I ordered for my main course.

I want to drink but I don’t want to get drunk. I want this night to be over and I want it to never end. I can’t stop looking at Kageko, at the way she’s somehow dark and bright at the same time, and it aches how much I love her. I slip my hand into hers, and she curls her fingers carefully over mine, thoughtlessly thoughtful the way she always is.

I eat my dinner without tasting it. I try to listen to the conversation but I don’t catch a word. It doesn’t matter. There’s a man two tables down who keeps looking at Kageko like he’s not sure if he should run away or fall to his knees and worship her. I don’t even try to fight the hot surge of pride and satisfaction I get from it.

At some point, there’s this kid who comes up to our table. He’s young, maybe the same age Manny was when I met him. He’s a white kid with shaggy hair and he looks uncomfortable in his shirt and slacks, like he’d rather be in a t-shirt and ripped jeans. He stutters his way through asking Manny and Caleb for autographs, and it’s like I can _see_ the tension shatter. Soon Manny’s showing the kid how to play bass with claws and Caleb is reccomending bands and when I look at Kageko, she’s smiling bright and sharp.

I breathe.

* * *

Everything changes. Even us.

I wake up late. I’m groggy and thick, and for a moment I don’t remember. I roll onto my side and curl my hand around Kageko’s shoulder, pressing a kiss over the smooth curve her scapula makes under her skin. It takes me several long, bleary moments to notice the glint of metal on my finger where there never had been before.

I’m not entirely sure I’m not dreaming while I look around the hotel room and take in the evidence; the shimmering black dress in its garment bag, hanging neatly from the standing mirror, the neatly folded white tux sitting on a chair, the shadowy veil hanging over the bedside table.

I lay there for a moment, letting it sink in. I watch the rise and fall of Kageko’s breathing, and I try to apply our new reality. I try to wrap my head around the idea that there are no more plans to plan, no more decisions to make, no more problems to anticipate. All of the arranging and worrying and stressing that’s been my life for the past few months is over, and I look over at my wife--

At my wife.

She stirs, lets out a sleepy sound and adjusts position on her pillow, and I stop breathing for a moment. She rolls over to face me and opens her eyes.

“Hello, Eld.”

I grin, so wide I can feel the stretch of my skin, and I kiss her for all I’m worth, morning breath and all.

“Hello.” I say, when I manage to tear myself away from her.

“Husband.” She beams, lacing her fingers through mine so that my ring stands out against her skin.

I nod. “Yeah.” I breathe. “I am.”

The necklace that makes up her wedding ring practically glows against her neck. Her hair is a mess and her breath is stale and tinged with the smell of blood and she is glorious. I look at the clock just long enough to decide today is a lost cause for getting out of bed and I fish the room service menu out of the bedside drawer.

Everything changes.

Fine by me.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, it's Valentine's Day as I post this, and I thought it'd be the perfect time to premier a fic for what have to be the two biggest hopeless romantics in the Drunk and the Ugly. This is a pretty simple story, basically a celebration of one of my favorite relationships in the campaign.
> 
> Therefore, special thanks to the wonderful Zach Mansur, voice of Eld in Mrs. Frieda's. And special thanks again to Nayt Knapp, voice of Kageko in Mrs. Frieda's. You guys are amazing.
> 
> I hope you like this one.


End file.
